Michigan Woman Receives Postcard That Was Sent A Hundred Years Earlier, Back In The 20th Century

Sep 16, 2020 by apost team

Mail could take a while to get where it needs to go. Sometimes a letter or a postcard shows up a day or two later than we expect. Receiving a postcard 100 years — yes, a full century — after someone put it in the mail seems outrageous. Yet, such a "slow-walk" delivery did occur to Brittany Keech from Michigan, who received a postcard postmarked from 1920.

The incident happened in Michigan, so it was the typically reliable United States mail that made the strange late delivery. Brittany Keech lives at the house where the postcard arrived. She checked her mail and discovered the crazy postcard, as Fox 17 reports. Of course, she was not the intended recipient. Brittany did not live in the home, nor was she born before October 20, 1920, when the card received a postmark. And then there's another indicator of the postcard's age: the stamp only cost one cent.

Roy McQueen was the recipient named on the card, and the inscriptions were from a relative who intended the card for the entire family living at the old home. The postcard's author appeared to be a young person based on references to doing homework and mentions "mother and father."

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Who sent the card? "Flossie Burgess" appears to be the author, but records provide little information about this person. "Flossie" may be a nickname, which makes it harder to track down documents.

The postcard also presents a Halloween theme, as it went out right before the Halloween season. People often think of Halloween as a "1970s and 1980s" holiday, but people did get into the "scary season" festivities in the 19th century and early 20th century.

Did the postcard travel a great distance to arrive? No, the person sending out the card did so from Jamestown, NY, reports FOX17. That's not too far from Belding, Michigan. A postcard would likely arrive in two or three days today. Sure, it would take a bit longer back in 1920. One hundred years, however, is way too late.

Brittany Keech was quite surprised to receive such an old card. The newsworthy event garnered some attention, and social media is abuzz about it. You don't often hear about a postcard arriving a century late. And scores of people do wonder where the postcard "hid" for so long before someone uncovered it for delivery.

No one knows why the card experienced a long delay, although the post office told FOX17 that what they "typically find is that old letters and postcards–sometimes purchased at flea markets, antique shops and even online–are re-entered into our system." Perhaps the mystery won't ever be resolved!

Is there someone in your family or on your friends' list who mentions issues with postal delays. Let the person know the longest wait they ever experienced for a letter or a package pales in comparison to this postcard's arrival. And finally, don't forget to let us know what you think about this crazy story!